UConn's Dolson, Hartley old hands at Final Four

Rich Elliott

Published 9:27 pm, Friday, April 4, 2014

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma has heard the same thing over and over again during the recruiting process. Players talk about how they want to go to college and they want go to the Final Four. Players talk about how they want to win a national championship, too.

This is nothing but talk, though. These youngsters have no direct knowledge of just how much work it takes to realize these lofty goals. There have been only 35 schools that have reached the Final Four in the 33-year history of the NCAA tournament. And 14 of these schools have not made more than one appearance.

This is why the careers of UConn senior All-Americans Stefanie Dolson and Bria Hartley are ones to remembers. They will be competing in their fourth Final Four Sunday when the unbeaten Huskies face Stanford in the national semifinals at Bridgestone Arena (approximately 9 p.m., ESPN).

"For them to say it when they were in high school and then to come here and actually do it, I think sometimes we take that for granted and sometimes we don't understand how hard it is and what's involved,'' Auriemma said. "Those kids have gone to four Final Fours now. There's some schools that haven't gone to four Final Fours in their history. So for them to do what they've done is amazing.''

There have been nine schools that have made at least four trips to the Final Four -- Tennessee, 18; UConn, 15; Stanford, 12; Louisiana Tech, 10; Notre Dame, 6; Georgia and LSU, 5; Duke and Maryland, 4.

Dolson and Hartley are among 11 UConn players who have reached the Final Four four times. Caroline Doty and Heather Buck, who each sat out one season as a medical red-shirt, were members of five Final Four teams.

"It feels great,'' Dolson said. "It's not something easy to explain. A lot of people don't even have the opportunity to go once. And I think when you go to Connecticut you know the expectation is to make it to the Final Four and win a national championship. So to make it there four times in a row, Bria and I are extremely excited. It's our senior year and we're just ready to go out with a bang.''

Dolson and Hartley have played in 20 NCAA tournament games. Should UConn advance to the final Tuesday they would move into third-place all-time in tournament history. Only Laurie Milligan of Tennessee (24, 1995-98) and former UConn All-American Diana Taurasi (23, 2001-04) will have played in more games.

"People think that just because you go to UConn you're supposed to go to a Final Four and people are supposed to roll over and it's not how it works,'' UConn junior Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis said. "They know more than anybody that all four years they had to work every single time to get to the Final Four. And it's not an easy thing.''

Dolson and Hartley thought they were going to win a national championship every year when they joined the program in 2010. But UConn was denied by Notre Dame in the national semifinals in 2011 and 2012.

Still, Dolson and Hartley can end their careers as two-time national champions. Again, that would be most impressive.

"I don't know if (four Final Fours) is that hard (to imagine) because when me and Stef came in we kind of came in and the team was on the 78-game winning streak and everything,'' Hartley said. "So we kind of thought this team's invincible. I think we kind of set our bar really high. And even though we didn't meet it exactly, we still did a pretty good job.''